On behalf of the CASL board, we would like to welcome you to CASL’s Spring 2010 season. Most of you are aware that CASL has changed its National Affiliation to US Club Soccer. We believe that with this change come more opportunities for the players that play this great game. We will continue providing recreational soccer in a way that we believe is consistent with how recreational soccer should be played.

We hope that you and your children have fun this season playing and watching the greatest game in the world.

Remember the game is supposed to be fun and the players should be enjoying themselves. This is their game and we adults should be there to help and support them.

Spring 2010 Season

The season will start March 26 and End on May 16. There will be no play on the weekend of

April 17, 2010 as Hoover will host their Hoover Havoc Tournament that weekend. Also, there will be no league play on the weekend of May 1, 2010, as the Trussville United Soccer Club will host their Trussville Classic Tournament that weekend.

The CASL Festival has been renamed the Micky Holmes Festival and will be held on the weekend of April 24, 2010. There is no charge for playing in the Micky Holmes Festival and it is a part of your CASL season play.

We love competition, and we know that many of your clubs have both recreational and competitive soccer teams. CASL is not the place for competitive teams to play. We have established and run this league for the benefit of the recreational player, and it’s unfair to them to be pitted against “travel” teams that are honing their skills for AYSA Division I or II play.

Our divisions do not have standings because, while everyone likes to win, winning the division is not what the league is about. When we talk about trying to make our games more competitive, we are referring to the balance of the run of play, not an expectation that the teams will be competitive teams. CASL’s goal is providing recreational soccer excellence – with the emphasis on “recreational.” Soccer is a game. Let the kids play it as a

Game.

We are discouraging teams from defeating their opponent by more than an 8 goal differential. We will be monitoring teams if we see a pattern developing. Should your team defeat an opponent by more than 8 goals you will receive a reminder email from the league, reminding you of the scoring rules. Your team is subject to possible sanctions if we see that this rule and the spirit of the game is not being at adhered to. If you are up by more that 6 goals on your opponent there are things you can do to balance the game such as quietly removing one player from the field, 5 passes before you can shoot and many more options. Remember this is about the children and you should be teaching them more than just soccer (Good Sportsmanship and Etc.). If your team is on the other end of that spectrum, please understand that sometimes a coach is trying to balance out the game and they might not be able to do so. If everyone works together, we should be able to play within the spirit of the game.

Form Teams As Evenly As Possible From Your Player Pool

One of the key principles of CASL is that we believe that distributing the more-skilled and less-skilled players among teams allows all players to improve while enjoying more evenly-contested game situations. Before you start referring to that philosophy as “communist” or something even less complimentary, take a minute and think about your club’s responsibilities to each and every player. How does it serve your more-skilled players if they can’t play as many minutes in their games because you have to bench them to keep from running up the score? How does it serve your less-skilled players if they only encounter game situations where they are scored upon repeatedly by “all-star” type teams?

Your club’s CASL teams in any given age and gender should be as comparably-skilled as you can make them. However, we recognize that sometimes you don’t have the number of players that would allow you to spread your team out – for example, if you only have 11 U12 boys registered, you are pretty likely to put them on a single team, and if those 11 boys are up-and-coming superstars, they may cruise through league play.

Mixed Ages Are OK, but Please Tell Us at Registration Time

We have significantly increased the amount of information we want from you on the team sheets for this fall. We did that because we believe we can better place your teams if we have a better idea of their composition, both from a skill perspective and from an age perspective. In the past, teams have often had to play up an entire year or even two even though only one or two players were over-age.

We hope that with this additional information, you will be able to form your teams for the fall in the manner that best serves both your players and those of your fellow clubs. If you have any questions regarding this note, or if you would like some advice on how to implement it, please contact our registrar, Leslie Dillon, at registrar@centralalabamasoccerleague.com and she will refer you to one of our coaching directors who should be able to assist you.

Treat Referees with Respect

There are no circumstances in which a parent or coach should confront a referee during or after a game.

Do not verbally harass a referee. If you must disagree with a call, do so quickly, calmly and let it go.

A very large percentage of our referees are learning on the job. Please be considerate, thank them for their time, and help to cultivate a healthy environment for Alabama’s referees.

These are most of the rules for the 2010 Spring Season:

Recording Game Scores

*New Rule* Winning coaches or managers must email their game scores to Leslie Dillon (Registrar@centralalabamasoccerleague.com) upon completion of your game – use the CASL Score Card (included in your coach’s packet that you should have received from your club) after each game.

Club Pass

Coaches are allowed three club passes per game.

Players that are club passing must be from the same club.

Club pass players must have valid US Club player cards to present to the referees.

Special rosters are not needed for the club pass – only US Club Player Cards.

Club pass players must be registered DIII players.

Players must be the appropriate age in order to player pass.

Game Day

Coaches must present their US Club rosters to the referees. No Roster No Play

Only coaches listed on the roster will be permitted on the players’ sideline. Referees may ask for photo identification. Failure to comply with this rule will result in coaches not being allowed on the sidelines with their team.

If rosters are misplaced, coaches must contact their Club Registrar for replacements.

Field Closings

Field closings should be posted on the club web sites or hotline numbers.

If you know that your fields are closed, please help by contacting your opposing coach ASAP, so he/she may contact his/her players. If coaches are not notified and show up at the closed field, this could result in your forfeit. Please consider travel time for those teams traveling a good distance to your field. A good rule-of-thumb is to give them two hours notice.

If a game is rained out it will be made up on a Wednesday night or on another Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Specific Rules for CASL Teams

1. Players will only be allowed to play for one team during any kind of CASL Festival.

2. U9/10 Age Group - Either team will be allowed to substitute on any normal substitution situation regardless

of who has possession of the ball.

3. Wins and Losses will be shown instead of scores.

4. U9/U10 age group will get a second throw-in if first one is not legal.

5. We will have ARs on some U11/U12 games. This will be used for training new referees.

6. You are not allowed to club pass DI or DII players onto a CASL team.

7. We will only be using US Club rosters as check-in procedure, unless you are club passing a player and then

that player will be required to have a player card for identification purposes. The referee has the right to spot

check any player at anytime by, but not limited to, asking the player his or her date of birth and making sure

that it matches the date on the roster. If a coach is caught playing an uninsured, non registered player he/she

will be suspended from coaching in the league and will be subject to further discipline from the league

and/or from their club. You will have to present player cards and rosters if you are going to play in a

tournament.

8. Only coaches or managers that appear on the roster are allowed on the sideline.

9. Rosters must be signed by the club registrar in order to be valid.

CASL Rules for Older Teams

This is concerning the U16 through U18 age groups in Recreation play only (CASL). What that means to you is that we can now group 9th through 12th grade players to form 11v 11 teams. Please do not place anyone that is below the ninth grade on one of these teams and do not ask for an exception to this rule. Also, please use good judgment on placing smaller younger players with older ones. Just because CASL is allowing these age groups to be grouped together, it does not take away the liability that the club assumes for their players. If after trying that we still cannot form enough 11v11 teams for league play, we can then try to form 6v6 teams at the older age groups only. These two rule changes should help you from having to turn players away at the older age groups. Please remember that no Division I or II players can play on a team playing within CASL at any age group. If you are having trouble forming 11v11 teams at the older age groups please contact the CASL registrar to let her know. If we have to form 6v6 teams, some of the rules are listed below.

6v6 Teams: (Recreational Play Only-CASL)

Age groups U16 through U18

Teams consisting of 5 field players with 1 keeper

Total number of players per team-10 player limit

Using existing U9/U10 fields and goals

1 referee

Offsides will not be called

Keepers cannot punt or drop kick the ball

2-30 minute halves

Normal rules apply for substitutions

10. All rules apply under USSF.

11. CASL working with the club registrars and administrators will determine season by season if these teams are formed. If clubs have the numbers to form enough 11v11 teams for league play then we will schedule those teams for season play.

Objective is for players not to be turned away, because of the lack of numbers to form enough 11v11 teams.

Rescheduling Guidelines

Please note that coaches will be allowed to reschedule up to, but no more than three games this season.

Those games can only be rescheduled on the three designated Wednesday nights assigned by CASL.

*NEW* Only the Home Team is allowed to request a reschedule of a game. We had teams rescheduling their away games so, that they had 6 or 7 home games. If a coach that is playing an away game asks you the home team to reschedule a game, they are in violation of this rule.

The 3 Wednesday nights are April 14, 28 and May 5, 2010.

The Wednesday night games will be held at the fields designated by the Hoover, Birmingham United or Trussville United Soccer Clubs.

Both coaches must agree on the reschedule of the game before it is sent to the appropriate club representative.

*RULE CHANGE* A representative from the coach’s club must submit a request to the CASL Registrar for approval, no later than 7 days before the originally scheduled or agreed upon rescheduled game, before a reschedule will be granted. Suitable representatives are the DOC, Club President, or Registrar. No reschedule requests received directly from a coach will be considered.

It would help everyone, if the games could be played as scheduled, but if a game needs to be rescheduled, the rules regarding reschedules must be adhered to.